Creating Positive Digital Citizens

In order to develop students that are positive digital citizens, I believe it is first imperative that teachers reflect on their own use of social media and their digital footprint. OCT has created an advisory regarding social media and acceptable use which I feel all teachers need to be familiar with. It can be accessed at: http://www.oct.ca/resources/advisories/use-of-electronic-communication-and-social-media

As technology continues to advance, so too does the push to ensure that our students are developing 21st century skills. To help students create a positive footprint, teachers are beginning to work with students from a young age about what is appropriate to post and say online, and what types of websites are safe. Mary Beth Hertz posted an interesting article about how she incorporates digital citizenship skills into her grade two classroom and provides some great links to resources for elementary teachers. It amazes me how much time young children spend using technology, and as a result I believe that we need to teach more of these skills in elementary grades before they’ve fully developed their footprints online.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-mary-beth-hertz

I also found some interesting videos that could be used to help explain the concept of digital citizenship to parents, students and staff alike. Each of the short videos offers different statistics, techniques and skills for developing 21st century skills, including videos that discuss copyright issues and protecting privacy online.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-digital-citizenship

Finally, as a teacher it can be sometimes daunting to find a way to incorporate new concepts into an already jam-packed schedule and curriculum. There are a number of resources that have been created as of lately to help teachers integrate lessons about digital citizenship into their plans. This site is organized by lesson topic, grade and resources/tools to help teachers teach about digital citizenship and safety.
http://www.teachinctrl.org/